Satham Podathey -- Movie Review

Vasanth is one director who has directed some really great movies like “Keladi Kanmani” and “Rhythm” while also directing some utterly hopeless movies like “Hey, Nee Romba Azhaga Irukae”. The trailer of “Satham Podathey” that I saw during the ill-fated “Urchagam” movie piqued my interest. The trailer showed the movie to be a thriller movie. With an unfathomable scarcity of thriller movies in Tamil, I was eagerly expecting for this movie. Did “Satham Podathey” fulfill the expectations? Did Vasanth come up with another quality entertainer?

Story: When Bhanu (Padmapriya), a person who has a lot of dreams about marriage & children, marries Rathnavelu (Nithin Sathya) life takes her through routes that she has not even thought about in her wildest dreams. Rathnavelu is an impotent due to his past drinking habits. He hides this fact from Bhanu and gets married to her. Bhanu soon comes to know if this & also the fact that Rathnavelu is a psychologically disturbed person. She applies for a divorce on these grounds & gets it. A few months pass and a new spring season seems to bloom in her life when she meets with Ravichandran (Prithviraj) who is willing to marry her. She also slowly falls in love with Ravichandran. Whether they marry each other inspite of the problems caused by Rathnavelu and whether they live happily after that forms the rest of the plot.

Making a movie out of a complicated & emotional story such as this one requires the portrayal of solid characters that can enhance the story. Vasanth has done a pathetic job in this and hence fails miserably in evoking the required emotions out of the viewers. Movie goers generally tend to identify themselves with one of the characters that is shown and when this does not happen because of weak characterizations, the movie seldom creates an impact in the hearts of the viewer. There was a sense of emptiness that engulfed me after watching this movie as it failed to leave any visible impact. This could be considered as the downfall of this otherwise ordinary movie.

The other thing that I couldn’t let pass is the insertion of the 2 songs after the interval. The two songs are forced and they only hamper the flow of the movie. Added to this is the fact that these songs are downright cheap and make you cringe does not augur well for a director like Vasanth who has always been churning out movies which the entire family can watch without getting uncomfortable in their seats. “You too, Vasanth?”

Performances: The top prize would surely go to Padma Priya for her brilliant portrayal of the girl who interminably suffers in the hands of a psychopathic husband. She emotes very beautifully and it is really surprising to see very less of her in the tamil filmdom. May be it is her mature look that acts as a deterrent for the film directors to not cast her in their movies. Nithin Sathya as the mentally disturbed husband would come in as a close second in terms of acting honors. It is very commendable of him to come up with a highly individualistic performance and not to be ‘Inspired’ from movies that have the same kind of characterizations (Prakash Raj in Aasai readily comes to my mind). PrithviRaj sadly looks good only in the romantic & comedy scenes and fails miserably in highly charged scenes. It is really surprising that Vasanth has not meted out a much meatier role for PrithviRaj.

Other aspects: Vasanth has this uncanny ability to get the best from his music directors and his streak continues in this as well with Yuvan churning out some really great songs. The “Pesugiren” and “Azhagu Kutti Chellam” would surely do the rounds in the TV channels for sometime atleast. Yuvan seems to grow with each movie in terms of his ability to give amazing BGM’s and this is no exception for he creates the perfect ambience for a dark thriller.

The camera work was horrible to say the least. Whoever taught the cameraman that swinging the camera from one end of the screen to the other when the characters are talking to be a modern technique seems to have taught him the wrong things about handling a camera. It becomes highly irritating very soon and I wanted to shout out (Oops, pun unintended) to stop prancing around with the camera. The only saving grace is the picturization of the songs. The lush green forts of Kerala act as a treat to the eyes.

Last Cut: With its unique theme and sensitive & sensible handling of the script notwithstanding, the lack of depth in characters bring down this movie. A movie that should have gone out loud & clear instead goes out with a whimper. Wait for the DVD release to watch this movie.

Rating: 6.5/10